11:11 Waves Blog 17: Reflection

Every Monday, I share 1 question for you to contemplate, 1 idea from me, 1 quote from others, and 1 inspiration for us.

This week’s topic is: Reflection

Last week I had the privilege to facilitate several Focus Groups with some exceptional human beings. Following these conversations, I took some time to capture my ah-ha moments and reflect on my own experiences and learnings. As I was adding these reflections in my journal, I was reminded that we do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.

One Question for you

Looking back to move forward: life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.

Discuss the question here.

One Idea from me

Enhancing our ability to understand ourselves, make sense of our experiences and reactions and learn (or unlearn) about our own values and motivations can help us refocus on what matters and enable us to move forward with more positivity, preparation and intentionality. Below I am sharing three of my favourite reflection tools and some tips on how to make reflection a daily habit.

Surprise, Failure and Frustration

Recent research from Harvard Business Review outlines that reflections that involve sentiments around surprise, failure and frustration are the most valuable in helping individuals learn and develop. During this week, whenever you are surprised, frustrated or fail, take a moment and capture your feelings, thoughts and learnings in a journal. At the end of the week, review your notes and ask yourself: What? So what? Now what?

Reflective Hindsight

Hindsight is a revelation, a new perspective, a light bulb moment that comes later after a situation has already taken place. This week, I invite to pick a decision or an action you have taken, look back and ask: What would you have done differently knowing what you know now?

Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life is a visual and powerful tool that can help you assess where you are in your life right now and where you would like to be in the future. It focuses on all the most important areas in your life (such as career, health, family, relationships, spirituality etc.) and provides you with a “bird’s eye” view of your life. Click here to fill in your Wheel of Life. After you get the results, I invite you to reflect on the areas of your life that need attention: Why did you score each area the way you did? What can you do to improve your rating? I invite you to repeat this exercise once a quarter to help you keep track of your satisfaction with how your life is going.

One Quote from others

"Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful." Margaret J. Wheatley

One Inspiration for us

There are nearly endless questions, prompts, and ideas you can use to take a self-reflection break.

If you want some inspiration, I invite you to check out the “Q of the day” section on my Radiant Wave website or follow me on Instagram where I regularly post questions to encourage self-reflection.

“Q of the day” contains over 130 questions and helps you to cultivate a sense of self-awareness, practice curiosity and monitor the impact of your own beliefs, actions, values, thoughts and feelings to grow, develop, be at your best and move positively forward.